The Woman King Does Not Glorify, Or Gloss Over, The Role Of Africa In The Slave Trade
Thanks to an article by Erica J, I had to go to the theater to see Gina Prince-Bythewood’s The Woman King starring Viola Davis and John Boyega.
It was my first trip to the theater since the pandemic. I’ve been avoiding it like the plague because of the proximity to others that you typically find in a movie theater. I didn’t want cooties.
Only this movie could get my body back into a theater seat. Not only is it directed by Prince-Bythewood, who gave us Love and Basketball, but it stars Viola Davis, the critically acclaimed actress of How to Get Away With Murder, Fences, and other great works, as General Nanisca. The talented John Boyega of Star Wars fame also stars as King Ghezo. Lashana Lynch, of Captain Marvel and No Time to Die, rounds out the superb cast.
The movie is historical fiction. The Woman King is set in 1823 and centers the West African Kingdom of Dahomey selling Africans captured from nearby kingdoms to Europeans — from Portugal, the Netherlands, and England — at the Dahomey coastal cities of Allada and Whydah. In the film, Dahomey is seen selling captured Africans to Brazilians and fighting with the Oyo Kingdom (present-day eastern Benin and western Nigeria) for dominance. This is all historically accurate. The film also depicts how…
